The Kennedy Center's Thirteenth Annual

Saturday, November 1, 2008, Noon - 6 p.m. on Roof Level and Millennium Stage

Sponsored by Target Stores

Volunteer for the Multicultural Children's Book Festival, application due Monday, October 20, 2008.

Performers & Special Guests

Karen O. Brown is a visual artist and teaching artist. Her extensive international travels in Southeast Asia, Europe, Central and South America inform and enrich her imaginative approach to teaching and personal expression. Brown's education includes graduate studies in textiles, ceramics, sculpture, 3-D and surface design, bookmaking, and photography. Her passionate enthusiasm for improving the environment comes through in her use of recycled materials and creative solutions to going green. Brown is an acclaimed professional artist with permanent installations at Children's Hospital and the D.C. Commission for the Arts and The Washington Convention Center. Her inspired and welcoming approach to teaching draws students in as they discover the joys of artistic exploration. A Kennedy Center Master Teaching Artist, Brown also teaches through the Smithsonian and Washington Performing Arts Society and conducts memorable professional development workshops for teachers and school administrators. Karen Brown is represented by Class Acts Arts at www.classactsarts.org

Culture Shock, Washington, D.C.is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting healthy lifestyles, physical fitness, and community involvement through the power of Hip Hop music and dance. Culture Shock dancers are trained in Hip Hop and American Street Dance by national and international dance instructors who introduce new and exciting choreography at weekly company classes. In a world where style and music are constantly changing, Culture Shock choreography remains innovative and unique, resulting in a troupe of individuals who express Hip Hop in a style all their own. Culture Shock dancers take their passion one step further by sharing their talents with the surrounding community.

Culture Shock's on-going commitment to community involvement is exemplified by its Future Shock youth outreach program. Culture Shock dancers work one-on-one with Future Shock teens to offer them a positive alternative to some of the destructive influences plaguing today's youth. The program provides mentoring and dance training to teens and youth ages 17 and under. Future Shock dancers are then given the opportunity to exhibit and showcase their talents to the community, friends, family, and peers.

Farafina Kan literally translates to the sound of Africa. They are a professional performing arts company dedicated to maintaining the history and integrity of traditional African drumming and dancing. Under the tutelage of international performing arts legends, Farafina Kan seeks to sustain the work initiated by these legends through professionalism, artistry, continual learning, and proactive intergenerational transmission of African culture through music and movement.

Daniel A. Kelin II is Honolulu Theatre for Youth's Director of Education. A nationally recognized Master Teaching Artist, he has designed programs and taught in the Marshall Islands, India, American Samoa and Vanuatu. Kelin is a recipient of one of the first national Teaching Artist fellowships with the Montalvo Arts Center in CA. An award winning writer himself, he taught playwriting for many years, and several of his former students have gone on to successful writing careers. His own writing has appeared in the Indian Folklore Research Journal, Micronesian Journal of the Humanities and Social Studies, NCTE's Talking Points, NCSS's Social Studies and the Young Learner, Teaching Artist Journal, Storytelling Magazine, Parabola, and Highlights for Children. Kelin is currently writing his third book, focused on drama with young English Language Learners. In 1999, he received an Aurand Harris Playwriting Fellowship for the Children's Theatre Foundation of America and in 2002, he was the runner-up recipient of the SCBWI Barbara Karlin grant.

Baba Jamal Koram, storyteller, was raised in an international community and reared in the strong traditions of the American south. Introduced to African resources at an early age, he has continued to learn, share, and teach the culture and importance of the people from this socially dynamic continent for over 20 years. His distinctive Afri-centric approach to the art of storytelling enables him to pass on cultural values that are traditionally African, inherently African American, but that speak to the entire human family. Jamal Koram, B.A., M.S., Ed.S., is a graduate of the State University of NY and UVA.

Silk Road Dance Company (SRDC) presents traditional and contemporary women's dances from the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. Founded by Artistic Director Dr. Laurel Victoria Gray in 1995, the ensemble's performances offer a unique glimpse of the life, culture, and art of little known regions. The award-winning SRDC has won deep respect from the members of the communities represented by the company's repertoire. They were the first American dance ensemble to win an invitation to perform in Samarkand, Uzbekistan at the UNESCO-sponsored Sharq Taronalari International Festival; they were also featured on Uzbek and Arabic language television broadcasts. Silk Road Dance Company has been featured at events for the Embassies of Egypt, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkey and Russia, and are frequently engaged by the Middle Eastern community to perform at festivals and traditional celebrations.